Palm Bay orders immediate suspension of FLOCK cameras

Flock cameras are now suspended in Palm Bay. These are the cameras that read license plates. Well, it's not a privacy issue, it's permits. Fox 35's Esther Bauer is live in Palm Bay tonight. So Esther, the city is now investigating how these cameras were put up by the contractor. Lou Anne, they are and the decision to suspend the program during this investigation came with full support from the Palm Bay Police Department and the City Council. What we are tracking next is when city staff is actually going to be coming out here and putting hoods on the lenses so people are fully aware the system is down and no longer tracking them. The city says they are investigating the placement and construction of the license plate readers that may not have been properly permitted or installed correctly by the vendor. The system will go offline as officials review this technology. While questions about permitting is what started this review, some city council members are concerned about privacy and public trust with these systems. There are concerns from the residents that they can't drive anywhere in our city without the government knowing where they're going. So there is a balance there between public safety and our residents' privacy that we're going to have to have some tough discussions about. And this is not the first time Palm Bay has had to shut down a program because of installation issues. Because of a Fox 35 investigation, the school's own speed cameras in Palm Bay were also removed. That contractor also failed to properly install the systems. And at this point, these flawed cameras are not being removed, but city staff will need to present to city council what they find and if the council wants to move forward with the program. Council member Langevin would like to see more oversight from state and federal lawmakers to make sure people's privacy is being protected with these systems. Reporting live in Palm Bay, Esther Maurer, Fox 35 News.